Ex-state Rep. Stephen Stetler: Prosecutors ask Pa. Supreme Court to hear appeal
In this file photo from June 6, 2012, former state Rep. Stephen Stetler, D-York, left, leaves the Dauphin County Courthouse with his attorney, Joshua Lock, for lunch. (Photo: YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS -, YORK DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS)
Stetler, 68, represented the 95th District, which includes York, West York, Spring Garden Township and part of West Manchester Township, from 1991 to 2006. He was awarded a new trial on public corruption charges in 2017.
(Undated) — Prosecutors have asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to hear their appeal of a decision that upheld a ruling awarding former state Rep. Stephen Stetler, D-York, a new trial on public corruption charges.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday filed the petition for allowance of appeal. It argues that three of the convictions, for conflict of interest, theft by deception and theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, should not have been thrown out.
“There is no legal precedent requiring that all convictions be vacated where there was an erroneous jury charge as to the elements of one or more other offenses,” the petition states. “In fact, quite the opposite is true.”
Stetler, 68, represented the 95th District, which also includes West York, Spring Garden Township and part of West Manchester Township, from 1991 to 2006. He was sentenced to serve 1 1/2 to five years in prison, fined $35,000 and ordered to pay more than $466,500 after being found guilty on charges that he used House staff members to work on fundraising and campaigns on state time.
In 2017, Dauphin County Common Pleas Judge John F. Cherry threw out Stetler’s convictions, finding that his attorney, Joshua Lock, was ineffective. He allowed the judge who was overseeing the trial, Todd A. Hoover, to enter the jury deliberation room and answer questions without Lock being present.
The Pennsylvania Superior Court later upheld the decision to grant a new trial.
“It’s not my style to try cases in the newspaper,” said John Uhler, Stetler’s attorney, “but the bottom line is the Superior Court case decision was very clear.”
A woman who answered Stetler’s phone, said, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak to reporters.”
This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The York Daily Record.
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